MindSea

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Dallas Morning News is a large media company. I handle all of our apps which include the Dallas Morning News app, SportsDay Talk app, and an e-paper app that’s a digital replica of our newspaper.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MindSea?

The SportsDay Talk app was launched a couple of years ago and has around 50,000 loyal followers. It’s a blend of sports content that our sports writers here at the Dallas Morning News write, and then we’ve integrated the most popular sports radio station here in Dallas in the app as well. There had not been any maintenance or updates on the app and we were losing customers. We rebuilt the app so that it functioned better and looked better.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MindSea just published an iOS version a couple of months ago and an Android version is coming out in January.

How did you come to work with MindSea?

We put out an RFP [request for proposal] and they responded to it. We had a specific budget for the project and MindSea came back with a solution that fit our budget. They came back with the best RFP response and we really like their team. I work with their co-founder, Bill, pretty much every day.

How much have you invested with MindSea?

We’ve spent between $150,000 and $200,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them about seven or eight months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our rating in the iOS App Store has gone from 2 ½ stars to almost 4 stars. There were some minor bugs, and MindSea had two updates out in within a week of publishing the app. They’ve worked extremely hard to learn about the rigid iOS rules concerning streaming apps. We use the feedback we’ve gotten to learn about data, and Bill and Joel from MindSea are working on how we can decrease data for our users. The reviews are showing that we’ve come up a more reliable stream and our ad impressions are up. Our time in the app is almost double what it used to be. We’re getting nearly six minutes per user per session, and those users are logging in twice a day. So we’re getting anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes a day out of each user, which is much higher than we were seeing before. We started integrating our radio ad spots and social media platform marketing which is resulting in a doubling of our new users each day.

How did MindSea perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a Slack channel that they set up for us which is a 24/7 feedback loop that includes Bill and everybody on their team. I can ask a question and have it answered right away.

What did you find most impressive about MindSea?

The team is awesome and they’re willing to do anything, including staying up late to work on the project. Their lead developer re-coded the entire app in his Jeep when we were having bugs with the radio player. When one of the developers stepped away from the team Bill took on the project and we would talk several times a day. I’ve never had another vendor work as hard as they did.

Are there any areas MindSea could improve?

I’m really happy with how they handle everything. They have a very talented team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a portal for protected wholesale industries. The first industry that’s being served by the app right now is the custom audio-video installation. So local AV guys or AV shops would use the app to search products. We catalog every single product in the industry from every single distributor and direct manufacturer. Once we do that, we then allow them to view the pricing in one spot and leverage that catalog to build proposals for their clients, and then convert those proposals into purchase orders and send the orders off to the vendors.

I’m the chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

We had already built the web version of our service and had been running it for almost five years. It was critical to be able to get it into a mobile app and do a native iOS app because these dealers are always in the field, they’re out in clients’ houses generating proposals or doing installs. So it makes sense to be able to offer a mobile app where they can do that out in the field rather than wait, take notes, and come back and do it at the office like they used to do it. We do have a development team in-house but we didn’t have any iOS guys.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MindSea provided just the iOS development.

How much have you invested with MindSea Development?

We have spent between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them two years ago. We did the blueprint session. They were great at turning around a comprehensive blueprint and telling us what it was going to cost. Our budget from the app just wasn’t realized until earlier this year. So I think we worked with them for about three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It launched in the app store yesterday [October 2016] so we’re not sure yet. We had test users for the last month. We launched at our trade show a couple of weeks ago. People were blown away by it. They couldn’t comprehend how we had taken an entire industry of products and got it into a phone screen. All indicators show that it’s going to be successful, but only time will tell. They say it’s really intuitive. There are only four sections you can go to - the catalog, the proposal section, order section, and the “more” area - settings and things. It’s simple to navigate. Having almost a million parts and pricing on a phone is pretty impressive, especially since it’s never been done before in wholesale.

How did MindSea Development perform from a project management standpoint?

The way they do meetings in their Scrum environment is just so efficient. We get on calls and get to the heart of the matter right away without feeling like it’s going too fast and they’re not listening to us and then they get to work. They’re really fast at getting things done. It’s daily builds almost. The organization is big enough that you’ve got a lot of resources, but they keep the team small enough so that they’re efficient. I’m not constantly talking to a sales person and then I’m talking to a project manager and then I’m talking to a designer. What’s unique about them is their designer is also the project manager. Amanda Somers manages a small team of developers, two to three guys, directly. It’s a very compact unit. It’s easy to communicate with them.

What did you find most impressive about MindSea Development?

Communication is the biggest one. They do a very good job of following up and recording feedback that we send to them. You know it was confirmed and they got all the feedback and what they’re going to work on. Them communicating to us the status of the project and doing it in an efficient way is great. We’re working with another outsourced dev shop now, and we’re able to compare that experience side by side. To be honest, some things really stand out about MindSea.

Are there any areas MindSea Development could improve?

I don’t know what we could’ve done better. Any project is going to have its technical challenges and roadblocks, but that’s not necessarily their fault. We didn’t have any big holdups. I feel they’re a little more expensive than other companies, but what you learn is you get what you pay for. That’s just my perception. I’m sure every person that pays for an app thinks it’s too expensive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Proposify is a software as a service it helps companies of all types – mainly service agencies and consultants and sales teams with proposals. It speeds up the proposal process. It lets them deliver beautiful proposals through the cloud and get faster sign off.

What is your position?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea?

We have an internal team and have been building the product for a few years. We've been scaling for the last year and a half. We have almost 2,500 customers around the world. We're growing quickly. All of our efforts have been aimed at the desktop experience. But, we do get requests for a mobile app. It's always been something that we've wanted to do but, because our internal expertise is not in mobile or native iOS apps, that was something we wanted to contract an outside agency that specializes in mobile to help us figure out.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

MindSea hasn't built anything yet. The project we bought was a blueprint project. It was the planning and designing of what the experience should be. It's planned as an iOS native experience. We are probably going to use another agency to build the project because of cost. It was great getting them involved to plan it out.

How did you come to work with MindSea?

It was through personal contact. Bill Wilson, the founder of MindSea, and I've known each other for years. They have a reputation in Halifax as being the go-to mobile app company.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The blueprinting project cost between $10,000 and $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One thing that impressed me about Mindsea was how detailed the blueprint and layout was. It wasn't just a set of wireframes. It started as sketches, moved to wireframes, and then to high fidelity. MindSea asked to be able to talk to our customers, which was great. They were able to send the prototype to our customers and have them test it and get user feedback. They made changes based on the feedback. The presentation at the end was great. They were able to do all that in three weeks. 

What distinguishes MindSea from other providers?

Even though they had a project manager involved, it was the UX [user experience] designer leading the project and being the point of contact. That was great because we were able to talk directly to the individual doing our work.

Is there anything MindSea could have improved or done differently?

I was happy with the results. Maybe it would have been nice to have had more interactive prototypes, but that's minor.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is Klothed, a personalized wardrobe planning and shopping app for men.

What is your position?

I am the CEO and one of three co-founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

We had some great initial responses to our idea and the roadmap of the app itself, but one of the challenges we faced was our user experience. During our customer validation phase we realized that people liked what we had, but intensely disliked our user interface. We approached MindSea because we needed to make the app intuitive and pleasing to the user.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Our initial engagement with them was to do a heuristic review of the wireframe and core functionality that my cofounders and I had built. After doing some testing to determine what worked and what didn't, they brought us a number of possible workflows and markups. During the course of a few weeks, we chose the concept that we liked, and they refined it. They call this the "blueprint phase." They built out the wireframes and designed a few of the key screens in full color.

At the end of the initial engagement, we were free to finish the coding ourselves or retain MindSea to complete it. We ended up retaining them for the front-end coding and iOSX code development and then handled the back-end and the API [application programming interface] ourselves.

How did you come to work with MindSea Development?

The CEO of MindSea [Bill Wilson] and I have a mutual contact. He has worked with MindSea a number of times and has spoken very highly of them. I told him what services I needed, and he gave me a list with only one name on it – MindSea.

We looked through their portfolio and were impressed by their design and development skills. We knew that they had built a reasonable number of apps, but we didn't know that 34 of their 35 app projects were featured by Apple. That was a huge indicator for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total of both projects falls between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The design phase of the project concluded in December 2015, and the development portion concluded earlier this month [April 2016]. We were even more pleased with the second project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We're releasing our app soon, and we've heard nothing, but glowing reviews of the user experience from our industry and retail partners. People used to say, "I love where you're going, but I can't stand what it looks like." Now, it's a full 180 and they're saying, "I love what you're doing and I love how it looks." That is thanks to MindSea.

How did MindSea Development perform from a project management standpoint?

MindSea is rigid in their processes. They're very thorough and ask many good questions before they start writing any code. In the beginning, it seems a bit slower, but the final product is a good combination of quality and speed. When they release a feature, you know it's going to work.

It was great for us to be able to be confident that the product was going to look beautiful, function well, and be completed on schedule. We were able to commit to our partners and investors that the app was going to be ready on time, and it was going to be rock solid.

What distinguishes MindSea Development from other providers?

There are three things about MindSea that have impressed me. Our original engagement with them was for design, and it was extraordinary. Their design capabilities are what impressed us initially. The second thing is their technical skill. They're a reasonably small team, but they have some exceptional developers. They consistently came up with great solutions , and we have yet to hire an engineer of our own that produces as high-quality content as anyone at MindSea. The third thing my colleagues and I were impressed with was their process. They have a regimented process that they adhere to very closely. This included weekly calls and builds and 21 test releases during our development phase to ensure they were perfect.

MindSea exceeded our expectations, which were unreasonably high the second time around because we had already seen them knock the first half of the project out of the park. We agreed to step into the development phase with them because we knew what they were capable of, and they exceed our expectations again. We are thrilled to bits with them.

Is there anything MindSea Development could have improved or done differently?

In all honesty, no. Having had another company and having worked in the industry, I've contracted with lots of service providers. Without a doubt, I've never been as pleased with the work that anyone has ever delivered to me in my 25 years in the industry as I am with MindSea.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a product design company for software products and, most recently, apps for mobile devices primarily iPhones, iPads, and the iOS ecosystem.

What is your position?

I founded the company. It's just me, but I pull in people as I need them. I outsource the majority of my development work to MindSea.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

I'm a software developer by training, when the first iPhone came out I was super excited about it as a programming platform. I kept telling myself I need to go learn Objective C and code up some apps. The first app I had on my list was a photo booth app, which simulates an old school photo booth on the iPhone. I knew I wouldn't get it done by the time the new phone came out. I was nervous that outsourcing part of the project would make me feel less ownership of it. 

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with MindSea Development?

I decided to loosen my grip on full control of the project. I searched the Internet, and there were a couple of big players in the market. In my search, I came across MindSea and sent them a note. I got an email back quickly from the founder. I think for a lot of reasons I was put at ease with MindSea. I was one of their first clients. They didn't have a track record, which was nerve-wracking for me, but I felt good about their founder, Bill Wilson. I interviewed five companies and felt the best about MindSea. Even though they didn't have the track record piece, I was willing to take the risk based on the personal connection I felt. It felt like it was going to be a collaborative experience. The other companies didn't feel that way. 

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative?

The fact that I'm still partnering with MindSea Development today is a testament to the strength of the service they provide and the type of work they do. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes MindSea Development from other providers?

One thing I think that's useful is that their founder comes from a software background. A couple of the companies I talked to it was clear that I was talking to a sales guy. Bill Wilson understood the development cycle and understands the pitfalls of software development. He understands the complexity of the code. He gets his hands dirty with the development. I think Bill is unique in the sense that he's very conversationally and relationally adept. He's a good communicator. When there's conflicts, it's helpful to have someone who's willing to speak clearly and walk through those things.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

Not really. They've grown quite a bit since I started using them. I think they've managed it well, but that road in any business is a difficult row to hoe. Making sure they maintain the quality of the new hires and remain responsive will be important.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're the provincial newspaper in Nova Scotia, Canada.

What is your position?

I'm the director of audience development. I work on business development and new products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

We needed to adapt to the digital age. Traditionally, newspapers are printed products, but over time, we've evolved to deliver our content to multiple platforms. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

MindSea provided app development and integration with our enterprise systems, which was a big part of our project and something we sought out in a partner. They also provided a lot of leadership and guidance around the app technologies that people were using – a lot of analytical background. 

In our company, we have a lot of traditional print employees and staff and MindSea really helped provide us with insight and intelligence on what was happening in the mobile space and what was happening at other similar organizations. They've also helped us with some Web development and some research. We recently engaged them on a research project for a new product, and they've been facilitating wireframes and have worked with focus groups to provide us with feedback on the direction we should be heading in terms of the content, look, and feel for the platform.

How did you come to work with MindSea Development?

We reached out to a few other firms. MindSea is a local company, and they approached us with a very sophisticated and great-looking solution, so we were impressed with their ability to identify our needs and work with our team to understand those needs. MindSea came back with something that was undeniably what we were looking for and in line with some of the international caliber newspaper and media companies.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we launched our first version of our iOS app in 2012. We have a monthly contract with MindSea Development so we constantly evolve and upgrade our products. We're in touch with them on a regular basis. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've been partners with MindSea since we entered the space. I think any growth and all growth can be attributed to that partnership. I think, from a higher-level perspective, they've added a lot of value to our organization as a whole – helping us understand a different space – Web space, different user and audience consumption habits, and things like that. They've worked internally to help various departments understand that. I think one of the ways they help us is they attend a lot of events and network quite a bit, and they've been able to bring some of that intelligence back to our organization. They speak with journalists and help them understand what's happening in the journalism space and the content delivery space. They have a major impact on changing the mind frame here.

What distinguishes MindSea Development from other providers?

I think the caliber of MindSea Development's skill set and their delivery is outstanding. They've had a major impact on us as far as project management skills. I work with 7–10 vendors and, hands down, they are the easiest to work with. They are just exceptionally organized. Their project management skills are off the charts. There are small things like after every meeting, their notes are succinct. Within an hour of the meeting, we have follow ups. They also meet deadlines. They're very proactive. It's changed our internal processes so we've adopted some of their processes because we saw first hand how well they worked and how efficient those practices were. 

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

There's really nothing. Any small issues or concerns that we've had have been addressed immediately. We have a very open relationship and, if we felt there was any confusion around deliverables or anything, we simply addressed them. We've encountered no major issues. They've been very responsive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your position?

We are a newspaper publishing company in Canada. We are the largest publisher of English news in Canada for print, Web, and mobile apps. I'm the product director for mobile.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

We weren't in mobile, and we needed to be. We had been working with a local app developer for an iPad app, but we weren't thrilled with the work, so we brought MindSea in for a consulting perspective to look at what was going on and provide an assessment on the work that was being done. We moved our iPad product to them for development and built on that for launching an iPhone app. We also moved our Android development to the MindSea team.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with MindSea Development?

We're based in Toronto and MindSea is based in Halifax. The company we were working with previously was based in Toronto. We looked at two other Toronto firms, and then MindSea had come recommended from one of our media partners in Nova Scotia. We did a review of each of the company's capabilities and ended up going with MindSea because of their focus on user experience. We have lots of expertise in Web user experience, but none in mobile. That lack of experience we found was affecting our mobile presence. We wanted someone who could bring in that expertise.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms? What is the status of this engagement?

We started with working with MindSea more than four years ago and, at this point, our partnership has reached $200,000 plus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have developed a number of different apps with MindSea. One that was launched three or four years ago was a very specific product for a community that we built around hockey in Montreal. It was featured and was a five-star app. In terms of the audience, we are keeping pace with the market.

What distinguishes MindSea Development from other providers?

We worked with a local Android developer in Toronto. We worked with another iOS development prior to MindSea, so we've worked with three different app developers. MindSea almost acts as an extension of my own team. They're extremely consultative and collaborative. It's not a factory. They operate the way I need them to. In other words if I say to them what we want to do, they're not just going to do it. They're going to think about it, provide their expertise, and come back to me if they think that there's a way to make it better. My experience with the other two developers was statement of work, business requirements, and they executed it. Working with MindSea has been much more of a partnership.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

It would be great if we were in the same city. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company develops and publishes consumer photo apps for the iOS platform.

What is your position?

I'm the owner, and I do the core research, product development, branding, marketing, and most of the development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MindSea Development?

I'm a one-man company, but I hire help when needed. I first started working with MindSea after I published an app that had become very popular. The popularity upped the stakes for quality. I approached MindSea in order to maintain the app with a level of quality that I couldn't bring to it.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with MindSea Development?

At some point, I had met another app developer that had a great app by MindSea. After talking to the MindSea team it seemed like their team brought everything that I was looking for. They had experience in the exact same market that I was in and was familiar with the technology and publishing.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative?

In total, it's mid-six figures. I've been using MindSea for other work throughout the years. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've done business together since 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes MindSea Development from other providers?

MindSea Development brings the full picture to the development process. They have an understanding of the marketing factors of the business. They can go deeper in areas where I can't. They can dive deeper in the area of graphics, UI [user interface], and the level of optimization. 

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

MindSea has been very flexible and brought a consistent level of quality to my work through the years. It's all been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Myomar Molecular, a healthcare company. We develop a diagnostic tool to detect early muscle atrophy, enabling healthcare professionals to tailor therapies, shorten hospital stays, and monitor patient recovery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MindSea?

We needed help developing a frontend dashboard for our urine-based testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MindSea designed and developed a client dashboard to present data in digestible content.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–5 teammates from MindSea.

How did you come to work with MindSea?

I had developed a previous relationship with Rubén (CEO) during previous work experience and learned about MindSea’s value and expertise. Additionally, they were close to my geographic location, and our company values aligned.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–October 2025.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

MindSea delivered wireframe designs, prototypes, and the final product. We measured the success of the dashboard through direct feedback and stakeholder satisfaction.

How did MindSea perform from a project management standpoint?

MindSea’s project management was good. We mainly communicated through virtual meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by MindSea’s commitment and experience level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

MindSea’s proactive communication could be improved, especially when errors occurred. Additionally, I never saw a specific timeline for the project, and we went over the estimated hours.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Department Executive of Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare.  For everyone. Everywhere. Sustainably.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire MindSea to accomplish?

• Connect the Noona mobile app to a large touchscreen display

SOLUTION

How did you find MindSea?

Referral

Why did you select MindSea over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from MindSea were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

A Noona software demo display is a modified Padzilla device powered by an M1 Mac Mini with an LG TVdisplay and a PQ Labs USB touch screen. It is intended to display a demo of the Noona app.
Originally this was done through the use of PadZilla’s software, which allowed remote display and control of a USB-connected iPhone.  Mindsea anables display use with some customization, correcting the glitchy interface. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The System works! 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Completly exceeded expectations. Their communication was clear, the work was of high quality, and it was done very quickly. Could not ask for anything more! 

What was your primary form of communication with MindSea?

• In-Person Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Flexability to complete a one off job

Are there any areas for improvement or something MindSea could have done differently?

None, they were amazing.